Let's open our Bibles again to
Psalm 57. The title of the message this evening, A Cry for Mercy.
And the title of this psalm says to the chief musician, I'm not
even going to try to pronounce that name, but it says here that
this is the psalm of Altachith. Altachith. To the chief musician,
Altachith. And that word means destroy me
not. Destroy Me Not. And there are
four Psalms with that title. There are four Destroy Me Not
Psalms. And in each of the Destroy Me Not Psalms, we always see,
number one, the destruction of the wicked, and number two, the
preservation of the saints. So a good subject for a Destroy
Me Not Psalm would be the mercy of God, wouldn't it? The only
reason God would not destroy you and me is mercy. The only
reason, so that's a good subject for this psalm, a cry for mercy.
This psalm is also called a Mitzcham of David, and that means a golden
psalm. There are a number of golden
psalms with that title, and a good subject for a golden psalm is
the golden mercy of our God. Mercy to sinners, his greatest
glory. David begins in this psalm crying
for mercy. He says, be merciful unto me,
O God, be merciful unto me. David repeats himself here because
when he wrote this psalm, David was in real trouble. He was on
the run from Saul and David really expected Saul to catch him and
kill him at any moment. At this time, David was measuring
his life expectancy in hours, not in days, months or years,
but in hours. He thought Saul was going to
catch him and put him to death very, very soon. So he had to
have mercy from God immediately. That's why he repeated himself
as an urgent need when he cried out for mercy. He had to be heard. If you and I ever see our spiritual
need, if we ever see how close we are to being destroyed for
our sin, we'll urgently cry because we'll need God's mercy. Now,
mercy is God not giving us what we do deserve for our sin. We
deserve for God to remove his presence from us. And we need
his presence. We deserve, because of our sin,
to be punished in hell. And we don't want that. We don't
want to be separated from God. We urgently need mercy. We must have mercy or else we'll
die. And that'll make a sinner cry
repeatedly for mercy. Not just once and then we're
not answered. We say, oh well, God's not going to have mercy
on me, so I'll go on. No, a sinner who's in need will repeatedly
cry for mercy. because of how urgently we need
it and how I need it right now. I can't wait till later. I need
God's mercy now. So that's why David repeats himself
because his need is so urgent. But secondly, he repeats himself
because mercy to guilty sinners is so sweet. He wants to stress
this point, the sweetness of mercy, how sweet it is for a
sinner to enjoy forgiveness of sin. How sweet it is to be able
to rest from fear of condemnation. How sweet it is to be able to
rest and enjoy the peace, peace with God that mercy brings to
us. So it's our urgent need of mercy
and the sweetness of God's mercy that makes David repeat himself,
be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me. Now, if you
are like David and you urgently need mercy, I want to give you
six encouraging truths about God's mercy that will help us
when we cry for mercy. Number one, mercy's reason. Mercy's
reason is Christ. David says, he goes on in verse
one, be merciful unto me for my soul trusteth in thee. If you look over at Psalm 147,
we'll get a little bit of commentary on this. Why does David says
be merciful unto me for my soul trusteth in thee? Look what he
says in Psalm 147 verse 11. The Lord taketh pleasure in them
that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy. Davis says,
Lord, be merciful unto me because you favor, you take pleasure
in those that hope in your mercy and I'm hoping in your mercy.
God takes pleasure in them that fear He takes pleasure in those
people who trust him. And he takes pleasure in showing
mercy to people who trust him. Now, let's not get to cart before
the horse. Our faith is not what makes us
deserve mercy. Mercy is always undeserved. By
definition, mercy is undeserved. But this is true. Faith in Christ
always wins mercy from God. Oh, he'll have mercy on whom
he will have mercy. But this is also true. Faith
in Christ always wins mercy from God because God delights in his
son. And he delights in everyone who
trusts in his son. So faith in Christ will always
win mercy from God. God is the God of mercy. That's how scripture describes
it. Scripture describes him as the father of mercies, and he
delights to show mercy to sinners. So when we cry, we cry with this
confidence. God will never disappoint any
poor soul that trusts him. You let that sink in. God will
never disappoint anyone he trusts. Just trust the Lord. He'll never
disappoint you. You'll have mercy from him. Let
me read you just a couple of verses here. Psalm 2 verse 12. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in Him. If you trust Christ, you're already
blessed. God's already given you the gift
of faith. You're already blessed if you trust Christ. And He'll
continue to bless you. He'll not quit. Psalm 18, verse
30. He is a buckler to all those
that trust in Him. Christ will protect everyone
who trusts Him. He'll shield them. He'll be their
buckler. Psalm 34, verse 22. The Lord redeemeth the soul of
his servants, none of them that trust in him. None of them shall
be desolate. No one who ever trust in Christ
will be found guilty because God has mercy on them. Psalm
37 verse 40, the Lord shall help them and deliver them. He shall
deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust
in him. Trusting in Christ brings salvation. Trusting in Christ always brings
mercy from God. Mercy's reason is Christ. It's faith and trust in Christ.
All right, number two, mercy's refuge is Christ. Look here at
the rest of verse one. In the shadow of thy wings will
I make my refuge until these calamities be overpassed. Now there could be two meanings
to this verse, and both of them are comfort to the bleeding heart.
First, David could mean that a believer finds safety from
every calamity by hiding in Christ. Just like those baby chicks hide
under the wings of that mother bird when the hawk is flying
overhead. There's a calamity overhead.
And they all just gather together under that mama. She gathers
them under her wings, and she just sits down on top of them,
and just holding those chicks. You know, you see the mama bird,
but think what's going on down underneath there. Those chicks
are just all snuggled up next to her. Those chicks, they are
as happy as they can be. They're warm. They feel safe.
They're snuggled. They're right up next to mama.
They just feel right safe there. and they just don't seem to have
any concern about what's going on overhead, because mama's just
on top of them, so close to them. The only way that hawk can get
to them is by getting to their mama first. And they just feel
so safe. Child of God, this is what David's
saying to us. There are many calamities. There
are many calamities all around us. And David says, you hide
there till they be overpassed. He makes it pretty clear these
calamities are like storms and they're going to come and they're
going to go. And there's going to be another
one right behind them. They're going to keep coming one right
after another, after another. So on each of these calamities,
run to Christ, just run to him, snuggle up close to him, get
in him and just wait until the storms passed. Hide yourself
under God's mercy. Hide yourself under the care
of God for His people. Just commit your care to Him.
Just get as close as you can to Him and draw comfort from
the warmth of His presence. Draw the feeling of security
in His great power. The calamity is real, but the
only way the calamity can hurt us is by getting to our God first
and moving Him. And that's not going to happen.
Not going to happen. So the other meaning here is this, hiding
in the shadow of the wings. It's hiding in the shadow of
the wings of the cherubim that were overspread over top of the
mercy seat. Those wings were spread over
it and underneath it was a shadow created by their wings. And it's
in that shadow where the high priest sprinkled the blood of
the sacrifice on the day of atonement every year. So this is the meaning. In every calamity, hide yourself
in the sacrifice of Christ. In every storm caused by your
sin, hide in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. If those dark
storm clouds of God's justice seem to gather and start to threaten
you, where else are you going to go? Hide under the blood of
Christ. His blood satisfied God's justice. Nothing can harm you. Nothing
can harm you hiding under the blood of Christ because His blood
is always accepted by the Father. Christ's blood paid the entire
sin debt of all of his people. Paid it in full. Then no creditor
can ever harm you because the debt's paid. Christ died for
you, the creditor's not even looking for you. The debt's paid. So trust Christ's blood. Christ's
blood removed the stain. of sin, remove the guilt of it,
remove the filth of it from all of his people. So under the blood
of Christ, we're safe from sin. When sin causes all these calamities,
you've got nowhere else to go but to the blood of Christ. The
chorus goes under the blood of Jesus, safe in the shepherd's
fold. Under the blood of Jesus, safe
though the ages roll, safe though the world may crumble, safe though
even the stars grow dim. Under the blood of Jesus, I'm
secure. Mercy's refuge is Christ. Hiding in. And thirdly, verse
two, mercy's confidence is Christ. I will cry into God most high,
unto God that performeth all things for me. David said the
same thing here. He said back in Psalm 56, I'm
crying for mercy to the most high. And I'm crying to him because
remember, David feels like his life is going to be taken at
any minute. Our enemies are powerful and they're nearby, but don't
despair. Our God is the most high. The
enemy is powerful, but our God is more powerful. He's the most
high. Our sin is a great mountain, but don't fear. Our God is the
most high. His mercy is higher and greater
than our sin. Call on him for mercy and confidence. His mercy is greater than my
sin. His mercy is greater than my
problem. All the charges that can be brought
against us, we have to say they're true, don't we? And they're serious,
serious charges. But don't fear. Our advocate
is the most high. Our advocate ever lives making
intercession for his people And he is more powerful than the
accusations. Our advocates never lost a case
because he always pleads one point. He pleads his blood. And it wins every case. The father
always says, not guilty. No matter how serious, no matter
how great the charge is, our advocate has the cure. He pleads
his own blood. The storm of calamity, trial
and trouble is great. But you hang on to this truth.
With the storm enraging and the clouds seem to have completely
blotted out the sun, you remember this. Our God is the most high. He's higher than the storm. Flee
to the rock that's higher than I. He's the one in control of
the storm. Just flee to Him. That lets us
be confident in God's mercy because of who He is. He's the most high. And here's some more confidence
for you. This word David uses, performeth here. I'll cry unto
God that performeth all things for me. That word has a Hebrew
word has three meanings in the English language. And we got
to look at all three of our words to see what this word perform
means. First, it means that God will perform. He'll perform everything
that needs to be done in order for his people to be saved. But
you'll notice David here is not just talking about God's people.
That's true. God's going to perform all things for his people. But
David's in trouble. And David says, God's going to
perform all things for me. I need a righteousness. Christ
came and performed it. He performed all things for me.
He obeyed the law for me. I need a sacrifice that will
put my sin away. Christ came and performed all
things for me by offering himself as a sacrifice for my sin. And I need to be called to Christ.
I need to be brought to Christ. Christ has come and performed
all things for me by being the good shepherd Leaving the 99
who have no need of a shepherd and going out and finding that
one lost. And when he finds him, he always finds him. It doesn't
say if he finds him, when he finds him. Picks him up on his
shoulder and brings him all the way home. Christ comes and brings
his people to God. He came and died that he might
bring his people to God. I need to be given repentance.
I need to be given faith and life. God the Holy Spirit performs
all things. by putting a new heart in me,
the new birth, a heart of faith, a heart that believes Christ
and loves Him and clings to Him. And I need to be brought to glory. And there are many times we feel
like David, we feel like our lives can be taken from us at
any moment. And we don't know if I can make it. The way seems
so long from here to there. And I do not know how can I make
it through this wilderness. until God calls me home. God will perform all things for
me. He will perform every event of
providence to bring me to glory in his time. I know he'll do
it because he promised to do it. And there's something very
interesting here. David says he performeth all
things for me, but you'll notice that those words, all things,
that's in italics. That was not in the original.
David wrote, God that performeth for me. Spurgeon said, it's like
this is carte blanche, like it's a blank check. Whatever it is
you need, Christ has performed for you. He'll perform all things
for me. The second meaning of this word
is to perfect. God will perfect all things for
me. God will perfect salvation in
me. One day he will. He'll glorify
me with Christ. I'm going to arrive there. I'm
going to wake in his likeness. Despite all my sin, despite all
my stumbling and bumbling, my salvation is going to be perfected
one day. Scripture tells us we have been
saved. We have been saved. Scripture
tells us we are being saved. Scripture tells us one day our
salvation will be perfected. God will perfect all things for
me. That's what the Apostle Paul meant in Philippians 1 verse
6, being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun
a good work in you will perform it. He'll perfect it until the
day of Jesus Christ. So his word means perform, it
means perfect. And thirdly, it means finish
or fulfill. God will finish, he will fulfill
all things for me. Everything that God promised
to do in eternity, He'll fulfill. Everything God promised in the
covenant of grace to His people, He'll fulfill it. The Lord Jesus
Christ will finish it all. He told us that He did, didn't
He? As He gave up the ghost on the tree, He said, it is finished. I've fulfilled, I've perfected,
I've performed all things for my people. You think of the promises of
God. God has promised salvation to His people. He's promised
the salvation of their souls. Christ came and finished it at
Calvary. And He's going to fulfill it
in glory. God promised eternal life to His people. The Holy
Spirit comes and gives it to them. And He's going to fulfill
it. He'll perfect it in eternity.
God predestinated a people to be conformed to the image of
His Son. Now what a promise. that God
has promised, this is my purpose for my people, that I'm going
to make them just like my Son. What a promise. I look at me,
when you look at you, we can't see how that's going to happen,
can we? But that purpose will so surely be done that the Apostle
said in Romans chapter 8, they're already glorified. Whoever it
is God predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son is already
glorified. It's fulfilled. It's finished.
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that gives us confidence
in God's mercy. That gives me a great incentive
to cry for mercy. I know I'm not what I should
be. But I know this, God will perform all things for me. He'll
make me what I should be one day. I know I'm not where I want
to be. Not just yet. But I know this,
God will perform all things for me. He's gonna bring me there.
And we're under these calamities that we're waiting until they're
overpassed. And we think the weight of it
is too much. I think it's going to crush me.
It's going to crush me physically. It's going to crush me emotionally.
It's going to crush me spiritually. Don't fear. Don't fear. But cry
out to God who performs all things for His people. He'll bring you
through it. He'll bring you through it. That's mercy's confidence.
And fourthly, mercy's Savior. is the Lord Jesus Christ, verse
three. He shall send from heaven and save me from the reproach
of him that would swallow me up. God shall send forth his
mercy and his truth. Here we've cried for mercy. And
David said, God sent a savior from heaven. He sent the Lord
Jesus Christ and Christ came and saved me from the reproach
of him that would swallow me up. He came and saved me from
the reproach of my sin that would have swallowed me up in hell
by being made sin for me. Look over a few pages at Psalm
69. Psalm 69. Verse 9. Well, look up at verse 7. He
says, because for thy sake, I have borne reproach. He bore the reproach
of his people. Shame hath covered my face. I
become a stranger unto my brethren and alien unto my mother's children.
For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. The reproaches of
them that reproach thee are fallen upon me. All those reproaches
that would have crushed his people to hell, Christ saved his people
from those reproaches by allowing those reproaches to fall on him
as our substitute. Look at verse four, David says,
my soul is among lions and I lie even among them that are set
on fire. Even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows
and their tongue a sharp sword. This is our Lord Jesus Christ
speaking and really it's him speaking all through the psalm,
but you see this so clearly here. This is our savior crying. He went face to face with Satan,
that roaring lion. He withstood him in the time
of temptation. He withstood him at Calvary.
He went to face those fierce religious Jewish lions who were
so determined to devour him. He faced all the fierce lions
of the world. That's who the Romans represented. He faced
all those lions and he defeated every one of them. Christ was
delivered from those lions. And he'll deliver his people
from those lions too. Just as surely as he delivered
Daniel from the lion's den, he'll deliver you from it. He surely
will. It's hard for me to imagine Daniel
being thrown down that lion's den. I mean, I'd have had a heart
attack before I hit the bottom. I just can't imagine that. And Daniel was down there, and
not only did God deliver him from the mouth of the lions,
Daniel rested that night. He wasn't fighting off the bites
and scratches of those lions. He laid down and used a lion
as a pillow and slept peacefully among those lions. He will you too. He will you
too. I know the roar of the lion will
frighten us to death, but you just don't have to fear the lions
too much. They're on God's chain. They're going to get close enough
you can smell the wrath. They're going to get close enough
they'll roar. You can feel it. But they can't devour you. You
remember when you face those lions, you remember this. Our
God is the Most High. Why do I have to fear these little
lions when I'm with the lion of the tribe of Judah? He's the
Most High. What a Savior we have. And this
salvation is done in mercy and truth. He sent from heaven. God
sent forth His mercy and His truth, David says. You know,
God always does more than what we could even imagine. Always. We cried for mercy, and God sent
something better. He sent mercy and truth. See, salvation in Christ is done
in both mercy and truth. Christ satisfied the law by His
obedience. He satisfied justice by his death. He made his people righteous. He didn't ignore their sin. He
paid for their sin and put it away and satisfied justice for
them. And he saved his people in truth. So God shows mercy
to his people in truth. There's no reason for him not
to show mercy to his people. Christ already removed every
reason for God to be angry. So God shows mercy in truth. He shows mercy to sinners in
truth. What a Savior we have. He saved
us in mercy and truth. He is to be praised. Verse 5. Be thou exalted, O God, above
the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the
earth. Lord, get glory to yourself.
Your greatest glory is showing mercy and truth. Mercy to sinners. Let your mercy be exalted. It's showing mercy to a poor
sinner like me. Then verse six, we have mercy's
deliverance. Mercy's deliverance is Christ.
They have prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down. They have digged a pit before
me. Into the midst whereof, they are fallen themselves. And then
he says, Selah. And I just always have heard
that that is a musical term that's not to be read aloud when we
read scripture. There are some people that say
that means stop. And repeat that. Stop and think
about that. Stop and think about that for
a minute. These enemies have digged a pit into the midst of
which they fall themselves. They're trapped in their own
pit. Mordecai hung on his own gallows. Again, this must be Christ speaking
here. The Jews spent three and a half
years sneaking around, trying to make plans to destroy the
Lord Jesus. I said that wrong, it's Haman,
wasn't it? Haman was hung on his own gallows, you know what
I mean, I'm sorry. It's one of those things along the back of
it. It's Haman hung on his own gallows. Mordecai was delivered.
But this is Christ speaking. After three and a half Jews are
living with them Jews, they're sneaking around all their secret
plots and plans, trying to destroy him. Satan, that old lion, moving
them that whole time, trying to destroy the Lord Jesus. And
when he finally allowed himself to be taken, the enemy didn't
win. He crushed every enemy in the very trap they laid for him. Satan tried to use the cross
to put the Savior out of business. All he accomplished was bruising
the Savior's heel. But Christ crushed Satan's heel.
put him out of business on the very trap he set for the Lord
Jesus. Not only did our Savior remove
all the sin of his people, but he removed the power of every
enemy. He removed the power of sin by
dying for his people. He removed the power of Satan
by crushing his head, all destroyed in their own trap. The enormous
weight of sin that bowed our Savior down, he took that weight. all that sin and he put it away
by his own death. And in his death, he brought
an end to sin. In his death, he brought the
death of death. So now no one for whom Christ
died can ever die themselves because he destroyed sin. He
destroyed death in their own trap by themselves. The Jews. Thought they could be rid of
Christ if they just put Him to death at Calvary. If they just
get the Romans to crucify Him, we can go back to our ruling,
our little religious fiefdom that we've set up. Well, they
got what they wanted, didn't they? Christ was put to death,
and when He did, He put them out of business by giving them
exactly what they wanted. They said, we don't want Him.
Away with Him. And He said, all right. They
withdrew His presence from them. blinded them in their darkness
and they're blind to this day. No gospel at all. Anything that
they're doing, they were destroyed in their own trap. And while
he destroyed the Jews in their own trap, all those enemies were
being destroyed. Remember, this is a delivery
song. The enemy is destroyed. God's people are given mercy
and delivery. While the Jews were being blinded, the light
of the gospel went out to the Gentiles, went out throughout
all the Gentile world And God's people are still being delivered
by that gospel being preached in the world today. What a savior
we have. This is a destroy me not song. God's people will never be destroyed. The enemy will, but his people
will always be spared because his death, our savior's death,
put an end to every enemy. And then lastly, mercy's praise.
Mercy's praise is Christ. Verse seven, David says, my heart
is fixed, O God. My heart is fixed. I will sing
and give praise. Now, mercy's praise begins in
this life. David, you notice he doesn't
say here, well, all these calamities are around me. I feel like my
lifespan, my life expectancy is being measured in hours or
minutes. And he doesn't say my heart is shaking and trembling
with fear, does it? No, he says even in the midst
of all these calamities, my heart is fixed. Fixed. I'm happy. My heart's happy and calm. The
word fixed here means prepared and made able. My heart, even
in the midst of these calamities, has been prepared, been made
able to praise the Lord for his mercy and his truth. My heart
is fixed. I'm determined. My heart is fixed
on praising the Lord for his mercy to me. And how can I not? How can I not praise the Lord
for his mercy? He punished His Son in my place. He put His Son to death in my
place. He gave me the righteousness
of His Son. He gave me the life of His Son.
How can I not praise Him in this life? Even in the midst of all
these calamities, how can I not praise Him? Oh, my heart's fixed.
I'm determined to do it. Mercy's praise begins in this
life. I'm telling you what, it's going
to go on a long time. It's going to go on eternally.
Look what he says in verse 8. He says, Awake up, my glory.
Awake, psaltery and harp. I myself will awake early. I will praise Thee, O Lord, among
the people. I will sing unto Thee among the
nations. Now that does kind of sound like the way we praise
the Lord in this life, doesn't it? A lot of the writers say
we ought to just get up really early in the morning, well before
you've got to go out and do anything, and just begin praising the Lord,
singing praises to the Lord, playing the psaltery and the
harp and things. And I reckon that's a good idea. But I don't
know about you, but I'm not a morning person. I probably don't sing
praise too well in the morning. I just don't really feel like
doing much anything until I've had a cup of coffee or two. And
I certainly can't play any instruments. I don't care, Mike, how many
lessons you gave me. I never play that piano. Never,
ever, ever. It's not in me. So Dave is talking
about something better than that. I'm convinced this is what he's
talking about. Even before Christ ever came, he's like our brother,
Job, speaking of the resurrection glory. That's exactly what he's
talking about. I've begun praising the Lord
for his mercy in this life, but there's coming a day that this
tongue is going to be silent. It's going to lie silent in the
grave and I'll rest in sleep. But I'm telling you this, I ain't
staying there. I'm going to wake up early. On resurrection morning,
I'm going to be awakened up early in glorified flesh. And then
I'm going to use all the new instruments in my body to praise
the Lord for his mercy, eternity. And that's what we'll spend eternity
doing. Look at verse 10. David here speaking of resurrection
morning. He said, this is what's going to be going on. For thy
mercy is great unto the heavens. This is what he's saying. And
thy mercy is great unto the heavens and thy truth unto the clouds.
Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let thy glory be
above all the earth. In glory, the theme of our praise
will be Christ our Savior and the salvation that he's provided
for us, that he performed for us in mercy and truth. And we'll
praise him for his mercy. We'll praise him for his mercy
that reached down to the lowest most vile, most
guilty sinner and lifted Him above the clouds, lifted Him
to glory because of His mercy. And we'll praise Him for His
truth. We'll praise Him for the truth. He made it so that we
ought to be there because He made us righteous. He made us
holy. He conformed us to the image of His Christ and that's
where we belong, by His mercy, by His grace and by His truth.
That will be the only explanation for any of us ending up there. And we will eternally praise
God for it because of His mercy. Then we'll know a whole lot better
than we do now. He performed all things. Let's bow together and pray. Our Father, how can we begin?
How can we even scratch the surface of thanking You and praising
You for Your mercy to Your people? Christ our Savior. How we thank
you for this psalm of mercy, this psalm of deliverance, how
you promised and assured your people you will deliver them,
you have delivered them, you will yet deliver them, that you'll
perfect our salvation one day because the promise of God is
just as sure as the act of God. Oh, how we thank you. Father,
cause us in the calamities of this life till they be overpassed
to trust in your mercy, to call upon you in mercy. God, be merciful. Be merciful, O God. Cause us
to have confidence and rest and assurance in the mercy that you
promised full and free to your people. It's in Christ's name
that we pray and give thanks.